Modelling of glacier and ice sheet micro-topography based on unmanned aerial vehicle data, Antarctica

Abstract

Modelling of glacier and ice sheet micro-topography is meaningful for the understanding of interactions between local ice mass and climate. Here, we used an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platform composed of a DJI Phantom 4 and a D-RTK mobile station to model the surface micro-topography around Zhongshan Station of China, East Antarctica. Two UAV survey types (vertical and oblique aerial photogrammetry) were performed during the China's 35th Antarctic expedition (CHINARE) in 2018-2019. Six surveys were obtained by the SfM-MVS technology. Then, we extracted the features of glacier surface micro-topography (blue ice, crevasses, ice doline and melt-water). It's noteworthy that traces of melt-water and a large ice doline appeared on the surface of Dalk Glacier in December 2018. Finally, we concluded that surface micro-topographic features, observable in the UAV-derived models but unavailable on satellite images, may reveal hints for interactions between surface and beneath processes in regional polar glacier.